Eastern Visayas to Achieve Goal on Malnutrition Rate by 2015

Posted by UJ on Apr 30, 2012 in Calbayog | Comments Off on Eastern Visayas to Achieve Goal on Malnutrition Rate by 2015

PALO, LEYTE — Achieving the goal to reduce the malnutrition rate for Eastern Visayas can be achieved within the period set under a United Nations-led program, an official said.

A feeding program for children. The level of malnutrition in Eastern Visayas is expected to reach UN goals by 2015. — AFP

“That is still possible [decrease the rate of malnourished children to 10% by 2015] with all the efforts done by the national government to build the capability of local government units to curb the problem,” Ms. Santiago said.Of the 528,593 preschool children weighed last year, 60,960 were identified as underweight and 18,327 were classified as severely underweight. The region posted a 15% malnutrition prevalence, a little lower than the 15.73% rate recorded in 2010.Ms. Santiago said municipalities in Samar and Northern Samar were still in the list of top 10 nutritionally poor municipalities in the region as of last year.Catbalogan City in Samar ranked first in terms of high percentage of underweight children with 27.75% followed by Samar province (21.54%), Northern Samar (17.69%), Leyte (15.73%), Borongan City in Eastern Samar (14.05%), Biliran (13.11), Ormoc City in Leyte (12.57%), Eastern Samar (11.83%), Calbayog City in Samar (11.76%), Tacloban City in Leyte (9.88%), Southern Leyte (7.95%), and Maasin City in Southern Leyte (5.03%).